Public Sector Education Career Overview
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More than 10 million Americans are employed in a public education career. Education is the second largest industry in the U.S.
Almost half of this workforce is made of up persons engaged in the profession of teacher. Education careers usually require at least a bachelor’s degree for non-administrative work, and some teaching jobs require a master’s or doctoral degree.
Retirements in a number of education professions will create many teaching job openings.
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Education Career Trends
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Education careers include 12.8
million wage and salary workers, and 199,000 self-employed and unpaid family
workers. Most teaching jobs are found in elementary and secondary schools, as nearly 90 percent of students attend
public primary and secondary schools, and about 75 percent attend public
postsecondary institutions.
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| Careers in education are expected to grow by 16.6% over the period of 2004-2014, with high growth rate in special education,
education program specialist, computer specialists, and teaching jobs in all educational levels.
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Education Career Outlook
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Wage and salary employment growth of 17 percent is expected in the educational services industry over the 2004–14 period, higher than the 14 percent increase projected for all industries combined.
In addition, a greater-than-average number of workers are over the age of 45 in nearly all the major occupations that make up the industry—from janitors to education administrators—so it is likely that retirements will create large numbers of job openings in addition to those due to employment growth.
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Teaching Jobs
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Urban and rural school districts, continue to report difficulties in recruiting qualified teachers, administrators, and support personnel. Fast-growing areas of the country—including several States and cities in the South and West—also report difficulty recruiting education workers, especially teachers. The number of students graduating with education degrees may not be sufficient to meet this industry’s growing needs, making job opportunities for graduates in many education fields good to excellent.
Alternative licensing programs are helping to attract more people into teaching, especially those from other career paths, but opportunities should continue to be very good for highly qualified teachers, especially those in subject areas with the highest needs, such as math, science, and special education.
At the postsecondary level, increases in student enrollments and projected retirements of current faculty should contribute to a favorable job market for postsecondary teachers.
The number of special education teachers is projected to experience faster than average growth through 2014, stemming from an increasing enrollment of special education students, continued emphasis on the inclusion of disabled students in general education classrooms, and an effort to reach students with problems at younger ages.
Employment of teacher assistants also will grow about as fast as the average; school reforms call for more individual attention to students, and additional teacher assistants will be needed in general education, special education, and English-as-a-second-language classrooms.
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| Source: Bureau of Labor
Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Career Guide to Industries, 2006-07
Edition,
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Education and Teaching jobs by location:
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